The advent of high speed communications links using chains of photodetectors and emitters has increased the pressure to find a low cost, quantum efficient detector with high speed capability. Silicon has been the material of choice for such detectors. The need for sensitivity implies greater silicon thickness but that is met with increased noise and reduced bandwidth.
The present invention has the goal of providing a buried reflector in a silicon wafer. The buried layer has particular advantage in providing a more cost effective and efficient photodetector assembly using silicon as the light detecting material. Silicon is advantageous because its micromechanical processing is well established and understood, and thus efficient. In the construction of photodetectors of silicon it is normally desired to overcome the relatively low photon absorption of silicon through the use two reflecting surfaces separated by the silicon to provide a Fabry-Perot cavity and enhanced sensitivity and selectivity. The realization of such a cavity structure has been hampered by the fact that in conventional silicon processing, the cavity dimensions, which define selectivity and wavelength, have been hard to control.